Themightmari4hi

Alex Stanton
Staff Writer

hen asked, you would

be hard-pressed to find
two people who see eye-to-eye
on the words they use to define
and attach meaning to the
word “success.” The idea of the
American Dream is so universal
that you don’t even have to be an
American to achieve it. For some,
success may mean becoming truly
independent of their childhood
families. For others, success isn’t a

word in their vocabulary until they :
: about Craven until right now, then :
: it makes it all the more heavy on

: my heart to let you know that

: in the final week of August he

: passed away at the age of 76. You

: could argue that he died a more

: desirable death than any of his

: creations; brain cancer is awful,

: but it certainly beats the pants

: off of being branded as a child

: murderer and being burned at the
: stake for it—a fate which was met
: by the most famous abomination

: against good feelings ever dreamt,

do something that is guaranteed
to land them in high school
history textbooks. For others still,
success might mean a white picket
fence and a family with your
childhood sweetheart.

There are an infinite number
of ways to define success, whether
they are realistically obtainable
or not. The first thing you'll
learn about this late, great man
that I am paying tribute to is his
undeniably distinct definition of

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M4 features@theotherpress.ca

: success: ditching his career asa

: college humanities professor for

: a lucrative career in the golden

: age of porn, followed by three

: consecutive decades of creating

: films fora genre that, prior to him,
: was incredibly stale even for its

: time.

For those of you who

: have missed out on watching

: supernatural horror films for the

: past 30 years, the man I speak of

: is Wes Craven, the creator of the

: genre-defining horror franchises
: The Nightmare on Elm Street and

Scream. If that is all you knew

Despite being the catalyst for

: an extremely impressive number

: of watchable horror flicks, you

: don't have to go too deep into the
: filmography of Craven to be able

: to point out why he had such an

: influence on his contemporaries

: and successors. Aside from his

: many passion projects, he had

: the gargantuan thriller franchises
: A Nightmare on Elm Street and

: Scream; the success of his two

: biggest films can be attributed

: to the simple fact that he was a

: certain type of artist. He was, first

and foremost, a film buff and

: a giant geek; however good or

: bada movie titled Deep Throat

: looks on an aspiring film maker’s
: résumé, you have to get your foot
: in the near unbreakable door of

: show business somehow, and he

: did. Craven was a true artist—he

: owed his livelihood to his love of
: the motion picture. He gave back
: in rather unique ways, the first of
: which was 1972's The Last House
: on the Left. The film achieved a

: more than acceptable consensus

(¥Y The silence of the lambs
(Y Lost tribes

And more!

legacy of Wesley Earl'Craven

» How a single brilliant mind reinvigorated, revolutionized, and redefined cinematic terror
: Elm Street’s Freddy Kruger. :

 

: among film critics, which can

: be attributed to the influence of

: Italian “Giallo” films of the 60s

: and—more notably—to the then
: unprecedented amount of on

: screen violence. Although critics

: consider it one of the less notable
: films in Craven’s film canon, it

: started a momentum of horror

: scriptwriting and film-making

: that wouldn’t slow down for any

: of the generic, down-right tame

: jump scare crap that audiences

: were positively sick of by the ‘Sos.

Up until the mid-80s, Wes

Craven lived a comfortable life

: making watchable horror films

: like The Hills Have Eyes and

: Stranger in Our House. It wasn’t
: until Elm Street, though, that he
: had, for the first time in his career,
> taken a tried and true formula

: and made it into something else,
: giving birth to what is today

: referred to as the slasher film.

: Slasher films generally focus on

: incredibly disturbing characters
: with dreadful urges to rape and

: ldll everyone in the film. Scream,
: just as much a classic as Kruger’s

Image by Ed Appleby

: seven film main series turned out
: to be, took established horror

: conventions and turned them on
: their head again. Scream was a

: horror film in the same way that

: Austin Powers was a spy movie

: and has since been hailed as a

: biting satire of Craven’s main

: genre as a whole, as well as a

: classic, well-crafted thriller.

I can’t pour my heart onto

: this page with thoughts of his

: contributions to film as an art

: without parroting what has

: already been said and is plainly

: obvious. This man did more for

: horror films than anyone has done
: for any genre of film ever. His

: influence can be seen in modern
: times through the sheer number
: of major horror movies that are

: filled to the brim with satire.

The fact that horror films still

: exist is thanks to Wes Craven. He
: will be missed by fans of his as

: well as those who appreciate his

: near mythical influence on film as
a medium.